Expect greatness from Harper, but don't forget to appreciate it

Bryce Harper has done some remarkable things so far this season, but here's perhaps the most remarkable thing he's done: He's been so good that we probably aren't fully appreciating just how good he's been.

Think of it this way: Were you surprised at all when Harper stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth yesterday at Nationals Park as a pinch-hitter, his team trailing by a run, and proceeded to launch the game-tying homer to center field off a 3-2 fastball from Twins closer Kevin Jepsen?

It's OK to admit that you probably weren't. We've all just come to expect this sort of thing from Harper. And we're not alone. His teammates feel the same way.

"We come to expect that he's going to do something special," said Chris Heisey, who hit the game-winning homer in the 16th. "You can't not expect it when he's been doing it as consistently as he's been doing it. I find myself putting really unfair expectations on him. If he gets jammed or pops out, it's like: 'What the heck, Harp?' You have to remember that it's very hard. I'm a career .240 hitter, obviously. So it's easy for anyone to watch from the side, but what he's doing is awesome."

Nationals manager Dusty Baker is just as guilty of expecting nothing but the remarkable from his young slugger. Asked what he found most impressive about Harper's at-bat yesterday, the 66-year-old manager didn't mention the home run itself or the three straight pitches Harper fouled off before homering. He mentioned the inevitability of the whole thing.

"He believed that he was going to do it," Baker said. "That's what impressed me the most. Confidence is not his problem, you know what I mean? Anything he does, he doesn't seem surprised, and I'm not surprised."

OK, so nobody is surprised anymore by anything Harper does. We've reached that point. But let's not gloss over what exactly he has done because it's worth going over in greater detail.

Here are some of the many remarkable facts and stats about Harper's remarkable start to the season (and career):

* Harper has nine home runs in 18 games. Do the math and that works out to 81 homers in 162 games. It's impossible to sustain that pace, right? Yes, probably. But it's not unfair to compare what Harper is doing right now to what one of the greatest of all-time did in his prime.

So far this season, Harper has homered once in every 6.9 at-bats. In the history of baseball, only one player has homered more frequently in a single season: Barry Bonds, who did it every 6.5 at-bats while hitting a record 73 homers in 2001.

Combine the 2015-16 seasons, and Harper has homered once in every 11.4 at-bats. The only player with a better career rate: Mark McGwire (10.61).

* Harper has only struck out nine times so far. It's probably asking too much for him do this over the entire season, but for what it's worth: Only two players in the last 60 years have finished a season with more homers than strikeouts (minimum 20 homers). Bonds had 45 homers and 41 strikeouts in 2004, and George Brett had 24 homers and 22 strikeouts in 1980. (Credit to Baseball-Reference.com for that nugget.)

* Harper's home runs have been anything but meaningless. He's the only player in baseball to have hit a game-tying or go-ahead homer in the ninth inning or later in each of the last five seasons, according to ESPN Stats and Info. (Reminder: This is Harper's fifth major league season.)

* Harper is doing much of his damage in the toughest of situations. He's hitting .308 (with four homers) with two strikes. He's hitting .435 (with six homers) with two outs. He's hitting .600 with runners in scoring position. He's hitting .750 with two outs and runners in scoring position.

Given all that, yes, there's a reason we've all come to expect nothing but the absolute best from Harper. Just make sure you also pause and appreciate it as well because who knows if we'll ever see anything like it again.